Darkness Breathes
by Little Miss Banana
Summary: The daughter of the late Oliver Wood and Catherine Bell was put in an orphanage at ten months. Rated T to be safe. No sexual content. No abuse.
1. Professor Potter

I don't see the point in doing lots so this is the only diclaimer for the whole story.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognise.

I would have liked to start this story by saying I was a perfectly ordinary little girl, with loving ordinary parents living an ordinary life. But if I said that I would be lying.

Because I'm not ordinary.

You see I was left in an orphanage as a baby. Okay, you say, lots of little girls live at orphanages. But I can do things, scary things, harmful things. I can bet that you're thinking about sending me to a mental institute, am I right?

Truth be told I'm not exactly sure how these things happen. But it all happens when I'm angry. That's all I know. It sometimes scares me though, sometimes. But I never tell anyone that. It's a secret that I'm keeping. I never get scared usually. So please don't tell anyone.

I'm getting side tracked here.

I guess the best way to start the story would be the afternoon I found out exactly who I was.

I walked through the garden, if you could call it that. All it was, was a courtyard with a couple of small plant pots here and there. The plants were small herb bushes, parsley, thyme, a couple of chives, and my namesake, rosemary. The children planted these. Of course I didn't join them, I felt no need, and they were scared of me. They were weak. I almost laughed when a crowd of seven year olds jumped apart from their huddle to allow me to walk through. I felt almost… regal.

"Rosemary Wood!" Someone barked at me. I was used to this, I turned and saw Madam Fringe glaring at me from behind her almost translucent spectacles. She was the strictest matron.

"Yes, Ma'am." I answered automatically like I'd been taught. Though inside I was reeling from that show of respect, 'She doesn't deserve it,' I thought bitterly.

"There is someone here to see you." Was all she said before she walked back inside. I didn't even know it was possible to do that obnoxiously.

Then it hit me, 'There's someone here to see _me_?' No one had ever wanted to see me. I was so surprised I didn't think about walking indoors, which probably would have been the smart option if I didn't want to get yelled at.

"Wood, come in!" Screeched Madam Fringe. I shook myself to my senses and walked into the building. I followed Fringe up to the office that was strictly for visitors. "Inside." She hissed and pushed me through the door and, coincidently, onto the floor. I picked myself up and found myself gazing up at a man in about his late twenties, perhaps early thirties? He had a shock of wild and unruly black hair. Though looking more closely I came to the conclusion that it was dark brown, He had bright green eyes hidden behind round spectacles and a strange scar shaped like… a lightning bolt. He smiled at me.

"Hello," He said putting his hand forward, "I'm Professor Potter." I shook his hand, still wary. His smile was a bit too wide, and his eyes were a bit too bright, and quite honestly I didn't trust him at all.

"I'm Rosemary Wood." I said quietly, and then added on, "Professor," Just to make sure. His smile grew wider, if at all possible.

"So I've heard." He turned to Madam Fringe. "Is there anywhere a little bit more private where we can take this?" When he said 'we' he motioned to me and him. I frowned. I didn't want to be in the same room with him. He seemed too… surreal.

"Of Course," she said, in somewhat sugary tones, sucking up to this 'Professor Potter' whoever he is. She led us through to the quiet zone, as we called it. It was where we went when we were 'naughty'. I can truthfully say I spent about most of my life in this place. I despised it. But still I followed Fringe and Potter in. "I'll leave you in there to talk." She said and closed the door abruptly.

I glanced at Potter, and then the door. I reckoned Madam Fringe was listening. Professor Potter got up, pulled out a long stick, and tapped the door twice.

"What did you do?" I asked. "Why are you here?"

He frowned slightly, the smile faltering for a second before returning full blast. Finally after a long awkward silence he opened his mouth to say something.

"Rosemary, can I call you Rosemary?" He asked.

"No." I answered. He seemed taken aback, but none the less he complied.

"Okay then, Miss Wood," he leaned forward. "What do you know about magic?"

There was a long pause before I said, "That's what I do, isn't it?"

He frowned, "What do you do?"

I shrugged, "There was no proof I did it, but I have a feeling it was me." I thought back to the fire. "I was angry at some people. They got tapped in the shed that burnt down. I'mm not sure how, I somehow willed it to happen."

Professor Potter stopped smiling, "How many people died?" he asked.

"Three," I answered. "They died of smoke inhalation."

"And who were they?" he asked softly his face was full of conflicting emotions.

"They were bullies. I hated them," I closed my eyes for a second letting a small smile slip onto my face. "They screamed when they burned," I turned my smile into a full blast grin. I opened my eyes and was suddenly serious again. "They killed my snake." I reckoned I had sufficiently disturbed Potter as he had turned a very nasty shade of green.

"You enjoyed that?" He whispered.

"Yes," I told him. "They killed my snake."

I was so angry when they killed Domina. She wasn't a pet, she was a friend. She was the only one I loved, the only one I could trust. I could remember so clearly the day I met her.

_I heard a rustle in the bushes. I turned and looked and there was a beautiful serpent. It had silver scales and the most beautiful green eyes. They were stunning and bright (but so different from the eyes of Professor Potter.) If I was a little older I probably would have run away, but I was five and innocent. Much more so than I am now. I knelt beside it. "Hello" I whispered, unaware I was talking in parseltongue._

_"A sssssspeaker?" It asked surprised. "But they are sssssso rare."_

_"You can ssssssssspeak Englisssh?" I hissed._

_The snake looked affronted, "I do not ssssssssspeak ssssuch a vulgar language! I sssssspeak the tongue of the ssssssssssserpents,"_

_"Doesssss that mean I ssssssssspeak it too?" I asked hiding my astonishment._

_"Clever child," hissed the snake fondly. "Yessssss it doessss." It then started slithering towards me and onto my arm._

_"What are you doing?" I asked._

_"It issss a great honor to ssssserve one who sssssspeaks the sssssssnake tongue. You humanssss call them parssssssselmouthsssssss" It said as a reply._

_"What isssss your name?" I whispered._

_"Domina," The snake, I now knew was a she, hissed. "My name isssssssss Domina."_

I shook myself awake and looked at Professor Potter. He was looking at me apprehensively. Then he said. "I should give you this." He handed me an envelope. "I will come and collect you on the twenty eighth to get your supplies, and then on the first to go to the train station. Provided you want to go, of course."

I glanced down at the small envelope he had given me. The address said;

_Rosemary Catherine Wood_

_St Benedict's Orphanage_

_Second Floor, Room 12_

On the back it had a seal on it baring a crest; it had a lion, a badger, an eagle, and a snake on it. Stamped underneath were the words 'Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry.'

"Of course," I whispered looking up at Professor Potter. "I want to go."

He nodded again still looking at me weirdly. "I will collect you." He said again and he made his way to the door. "Goodbye."

I said nothing. He slipped out and I heard Madam Fringe so sweetly and so obviously fake, show him the door. I heard his footsteps on the gravel driveway and scrambled to the window. He turned around; as if he knew I was watching him and waved. I didn't wave back.

Because I just didn't trust him, not at all.


	2. Diagon Alley

Chapter 2

It was the twenty eighth of August and, in my opinion, time couldn't have gone slow enough. It wasn't that I didn't want to go to Hogwarts, in fact I wanted to very much. I dreaded seeing Professor Potter. I wasn't scared of him; of course I wasn't. I still didn't trust him.

As the bell for breakfast sounded, I made my down to the table. As I came in sight the children sitting on the nearest end scurried away from me, making a wide berth. I glared at them. They were vile. The day trip with Potter suddenly looked promising. I would be away from this lot for the majority of the day. Though I disliked the man I could always ignore him, but it was actually fun to torment him like the day he came, even though it made my heart ache. Domina was really like a mother to me.

After breakfast I stood to go upstairs again when someone grabbed my arm, and hauled me along to the office in which I first met Professor Potter. It was Madam Fringe. I winced slightly at her firm grip. She opened the door and shoved me through. I fell at Potter's feet again. The thought made me scowl. He picked me up gently and set me down. This confused me. I still didn't trust him but part of me wanted to.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

"I'm fine." I said frostily. Inside emotions were battling each other.

He frowned slightly, "Well then, we better be off." He took my hand and pulled me from the room. Before I could yank my hand out of his, we were suddenly in a whirlwind of colours. I panicked upon finding I couldn't breathe. I gasped for breath when we stopped, not lifting my head up to look at my surroundings.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley, Rosie!" I heard Potter say. I really didn't like the name but I was feeling too queasy to complain. When I had got my breath back I looked up and gasped, suddenly I wasn't feeling sick anymore. Diagon Alley, it turned out, was basically an enormous shopping centre (Magical of course) squeezed in one long alleyway. There was everything you could ever want! I caught sight of small tunnel-like entrance to a thin passage you could barely see into. A sign hung from one string above it. I turned my head slightly to read the name… Knockturn Alley. To say I was intrigued would be the understatement of the year.

"You don't want to go down there Rosie," said Professor Potter, "It's not a nice place, believe me."

That and the way he called me 'Rosie' only made the urge to see the alley stronger. When Professor Potter turned his back I slipped around a crowd of people and into the alley.

The place was dark and it had a musty smell. The kind you get in a room that hasn't been entered for years, though I knew it must have been. It was lucky that I was only in a few meters before Professor Potter came charging in.

"How dare you!" He shouted, "How dare you run away! And into a place like this as well! You could have been kidnapped! You could have been killed!"

"I'm sorry!" I sobbed. "I-I was j-just s-so curious and-" I gasped, "and I j-just wanted to s-see what was here!"

I hadn't cried in a long, long time. Not since Domina was killed. I didn't know what was happening to me.

I saw his face soften a bit. "Well it's okay as long as you don't do it again," he paused. "Especially here, Knockturn Alley is extremely dangerous. It's not a place for little children to wander about. " Little children? I am not a little child! I glared at him, but he was oblivious. Then I considered slightly, in his eyes I supposes I was little.

Potter led me out of Knockturn Alley. We went through the list of things needed for Hogwarts. Apparently my Mother and Father left me quite rich. That was really all they were good for. After my Father had died my Mother had dumped me in an orphanage no-one had heard from her since, though they had tried contacting her, it seemed. I didn't care though. If my mother was callous enough to leave me alone on the doorstep of an orphanage, then I was better off without her.

We finally got to the wand after many hours of shopping.

The shop was dark except for a few splodges of light coming through the narrow windows. I would hate to see what it would be like trying to find a wand at night.

Suddenly a ladder slipped forward, on its own. This was such a little thing; I couldn't be startled by it, though I did wonder about how it worked for a split second. I was more curious about the old man riding atop it.

"Rosemary Wood! What a pleasant surprise." The man's voice was eerie and gave me shivers up my spine. He stared at me with piercing blue eyes.

'For you maybe,' I thought. Instead asking, "Who are you?"

"I am Ollivander. I assume you are here to purchase a wand?" He smiled at me once I had nodded and brought forward some long thin boxes and a magical measuring tape. (It was floating along beside him.) Once he had measured me accordingly he opened a box. "Try this; it is apple wood and dragons heartstring, 12 inches."

I waved it once and the window shattered. In fact the more wands I tried the worse the shop got. I think I must have tried almost every wand in the place. Ollivander was skipping; he seemed to get more and more excited as the pile of wands on the desk grew.

"A tricky customer!" he cried his grin getting more and more pronounced. "Excellent!"

Then he frowned and thought a minute, he picked another wand and gave it to me. "Wave it," He instructed.

I did just that. A bright light seemed to come from the wand; it grew and grew, not just bigger, but brighter too, so much that Professor Potter and Ollivander had to shield their eyes. I didn't have to. I just stared at the light until it died down.

"Yew and phoenix feather," whispered Ollivander. "A most…. interesting combination."

"What does this mean?" whispered Professor Potter.

"What it means, I cannot tell. I know that Miss Wood will become a very powerful witch someday…. Yes, so very powerful."

I was thrilled to say the least; I mean how many times a day do you get called powerful? Professor Potter seemed in a hurry though; I paid for my wand and left Ollivander in peace.

We had lunch and then apparated (Professor Potter told me what it was called) back to the orphanage. Sounds hasty, doesn't it? That's because it was.

"I will meet you on the first to take you to the Hogwarts train." He said in a strained voice and then apparated away again leaving me with my stuff to contemplate this day's events.


End file.
